The Place
A venue that defined Shanghai’s bar scene during the great speakeasy boom of the last few years, Flask’s untimely closure due to leasing issues was shocking. After overseeing newer ventures like green-fingered cocktail bar Botanist on Xiangyang Bei Lu and military-themed Bunker in Xintiandi, Taiwan-American owners Jackson Cheng and Kevin Yu have reopened the bar that started it all at a flashy new location just off of Huaihai Zhong Lu. 
Those acquainted with the old Flask will notice one huge difference – the famous coke machine ‘secret entrance’ is gone. As is the sandwich shop façade that was at the former location. Instead, there is a new concept, a snack bar called Tiger Bites, which holds the secret entrance to Flask, and to our reckoning offers more reason to get excited.
The Food
Tiger Bites serves steamed baos and loaded French fries, unlocking the wide wingspan of the Taiwanese street snack that became an unlikely poster child for modern Chinese food, following phenomena like Eddie Huang’s Baohaus in New York, Little Bao in Hong Kong, or the now-shuttered Baoism in our own city.
Since the pressure’s off for Tiger Bites to be the moneymaker (Flask’s RMB80+ cocktails can take care of that) Taiwan-born chef Michael Huang has leeway to keep his menu short and focused. None of the baos are over RMB36, and along with a serving of fries they are enough to constitute a meal.
Tiger Bites shots served after 7pm.
A personal favorite is the ‘Tiger Bites Noodle’ (RMB36), a bao that riffs on eggs, bacon and okonomiyaki – fried yakisoba noodles with dried bonito, nori seaweed, wasabi mayo and soy-based sweet sauce. We were impressed at how they managed to contain the okonomiyaki experience inside a single bao, which was fried to an enticing golden brown.
The Cuban sandwich bao (RMB32) is also A-grade, packed with roast pork shoulder (we got belly instead, but who’s counting?), smoked ham, cheese, mayo, pickles, and pickled purple cabbage. Tiger Bites isn’t afraid of using the acidity of pickles to wisely counteract the fattiness of its rich ingredients.
How to choose between the Tiger fries, loaded with braised pork belly, mustard leaves, pickled garlic and Sriracha ketchup (RMB36), or the kimchi and pork belly fries with Sriracha mayo (RMB36)? The former just clinched it for us, though we had to order the latter twice just to be sure.
There’s also a short breakfast and coffee menu that runs from 6am-7pm, consisting of two breakfast baos that are just RMB20. The 'Chinese-style' (below) one is filled with a crunchy, fried radish cake, scallion omelet, pickled beetroot, parsley, fried shallot, bacon bites and sweet chili sauce, while its 'Western-style' counterpart has cheese, chorizo, fried egg and Sriracha mayo. We're into the radish one, but they're both good.
We love how delicious and creative they've made this menu, while still keeping it affordable.
Food verdict: 2/3
The Vibe
Tiger Bites’ striking and minimalist design – a nod to the bamboo steamers that produce the baos – is courtesy of Alberto Caiola, the same architect as the original Flask, Botanist and Fumi Coffee. Given high ceilings, natural light and minus pesky functional comforts like tables or high chairs to get in the way of cutting edge restaurant design, this brief is doubtlessly a star in the designer’s portfolio.
Eating here is a quick and intense experience; you might be perched on a hard stool listening to Snapchat generation hip hop, with great value food good enough to be a standalone concept.
Vibe verdict: 1.5/1
Total Verdict: 3.5/5
Price: from RMB20 per person
Who’s going: local office workers, pre-Flask imbibers
Good for: quick eats, breakfast, snacks, lunch, solo dining
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